Archive for December, 2012

Anson and I travelled to Vermont to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We went out for a whole week and renewed our vows somewhere in the middle. It was awesome 🙂

The flight was as expected. I had to get a pat down by security (much more extensive than it used to be!). The lady was laughing with me by the end though—said she appreciated my being so nice about it. Anson took pictures. I will not be posting them 🙂

The drive from the airport was amazing. We drove past lots of small-town Christmas decorations, flannel stores, cookie shops….ahh, Vermont! They also had a radio station playing Casey Kasem counting down the Christmas hits. Best. Drive. Ever.

The next morning, we started to explore Vermont. We spent the day with our very awesome friends, The Risneys, who travelled with us. The restaurant at the inn was heavenly. Everything was very rich, but worth it!

We then headed to the Maple Museum. When we walked in, we appeared to be in a gift shop. By the door, there was a sign that said “Museum Tour $1.75.” So, we stood waiting until an older lady finally noticed we were there and we were able to ask about the tour. We paid our money and she led us to the back. She had to come with us to turn on the lights and warned us that there was no heat inside. Awesome.

The first thing we saw was this guy:

He gave us a speech about maple syrup. We were cold though, so we didn’t stay to listen to the whole thing. The next guy we met was this guy:

One of the best parts of the museum is the combination of reality and stuffed animals. They also had some pretty paintings and interesting signs.

And some pretty creepy stuff. Anson thinks the first guy is the creepiest because of his hands. I think the second guy is because of his eyes. We need a tie-breaker.

As we were leaving the museum, we got to watch a 1980’s slide show about how maple syrup is made. We then went to the tasting room where there was a fantastic selection of treats to try. I sampled all the different kinds of maple syrup and a few of the other local products.

We then walked around the gift shop and made a few purchases. Yummy stuff!

After that, we headed into downtown Rutland for lunch. Unfortunately, almost all of Rutland is closed on Mondays. So, after a time, we happened upon a small restaurant that we thought might work. We walked in and saw the tables decorated with Charlie Brown trees.

Normally I would think this was cute. However, in this particular case, it was just sad. We ordered lunch—I ordered a turkey sandwich. When they brought it to the table, it appeared to be an entire pack of store-bought lunch meat that had been cut in half and placed on the bread with a piece of lettuce. They also put approximately an entire bag of sunchips on my plate. I took a couple bites of the sandwich before I became very unsure that the meat on my sandwich was actually turkey. Ugh. It’s tempting to write Robert Irvine and recommend this place to Restaurant Impossible!

So, for dinner we went to the restaurant at the inn. Pumpkin risotto—so good 🙂

During December, Anson and I enjoy hopping in the car and driving around different neighborhoods to see Christmas lights. This year we found a particularly amazing house. There was a sign with a radio station at the side of the yard. If you listen to the station, you can hear Christmas music synced up to the light show. We got a little video. Enjoy!